The spittle turned to a drizzle, which soon hardened into drumming rainfall. It clouded Patt’Shee behind a grey veil of wetness on the southern horizon. Mei pushed him despite the wetness. She didn’t show it, but he guessed she wished to throw that town off the end of the world with haste. Yet eventually her drive faded, and it forced him to search with his now uncovered ruby eye for shelter.
Mazin rushed at his first sighting of a mushroom tree. Short yet wide, with grey leaves and pale spotty wood to match the fungi. As commonplace in the Bar Province like the darkwoods were within the Dhaar. Though these were of little worth. Their wood was brittle and unyielding to change beyond being wood risen from the soil. The leaves were nothing more than ornaments, and poisonous to the unlucky Unblessed who touched them. But rain failed to pierce its wide-reaching canopy. That was well worth its many deficiencies.
Dead leaves and dry twigs crunched beneath their soggy boots as they collapsed together against its trunk. Their soggy cloth was all the moisture allowed beneath its shelter. They rang their damp outer layers and soon found the moisture vanishing beneath the dry grass. Subtle warmth radiated from the roots protruding from the earth, pulsing like a heartbeat towards the trunk.
Mazin and Mei sat together, separated by a thick root as they shivered the last of the cold away. His ruby eye scanned their surroundings, peering through the wet mist in search of the typical ochre gold of Sinha. Mei drifted. Her eyes focused on her rubbing hands at first, then on her boots.
The crone’s words stuck with him as well, her accusations of a corruption, and her strange focus on Mei. As if she knew both of them. Speaking her departed Tamed’s name was more than a surprise. What corruption did she see beyond her apparent madness? Did she really know about his eye? An itch drew his fingers beneath it once again. How could she suffer the same thing?
“What was that?” She asked. “When that lady spoke, she said something that didn’t sound, well I understood it but,”
“She spoke her Tamed’s name.”
Mei frowned at him, which he was learning was her way of seeking elaboration.
“If a Tamer can speak their Tamed’s name aloud, that means the bond is severed.”
“Ah,” she returned to her distance.
He couldn’t offer more, to provide the comfort she deserved. At least by now her shivering ceased, but the rain continued beyond their shelter. With a few rumbles from the sky above.
The monotony of the rain made it hard to keep track of time. Their surroundings remained grey, neither brightening nor darkening. Mazin didn’t give up his search, however, peering at the open greyness all around.
“The result of two decades of strife?”
Mazin almost frowned at Mei’s resumed muttering. Yet the grief on her face stole all words from his tongue.
“Even if… what could be done?”
“Don't take the mad woman’s words to heart, Mei.”
“How do you know she was mad? I saw desperate honesty in those cloudy eyes. Is that something you can smell?”
Mazin closed his mouth as he considered her forceful question. There was no scent on that woman. Then again, his overloaded senses suffered everything and nothing.
“I don’t know.”
“Mmh”
Mei fell silent again, and Mazin suffered more guilt. Thankfully, her shoulders softened, and she lounged as the gloom darkened. Kamaria and Galel remained away. There was no sign of their Tamed either, which meant no khopesh should the unthinkable occur. He was unsure if his bare hands would suffice. However, remaining stagnant beneath this tree didn’t strike him as wise.
The rain slowed to a trickle, but the wind blew hard. When the drizzle died to reveal the rushing darkness of night. He snatched Mei up and made for a nearby grove, where the earth rumbled and steam clouded the borders of the protective ring of trees.
Mei sighed once they crossed the threshold. A bubbling spring feeding into a cooler pool was the source of the swirling steam. At the foot of a large mushroom tree.
“These trees are so strange,” Mei began as she collapsed in the middle of the yellow grass.
“The mushroom tree?”
“Is that what it is called? I mean these dead ones ringing this spring.”
Mazin frowned at the normal, leafless trees while he gathered dead twigs and kindling for a fire.
“They seem normal to me.”
“Are there many springs this far north?”
“The springs come from the north, from the Mahn’Parvat, I believe. An underground labyrinth of fire reaching as far south as the Dhaar and the easternmost borders of the Boor Provinces.”
“There’s an explorer in that princely heart, isn’t there?”
“Perhaps, but it is beyond the realms of my duty,” Mazin sighed, pausing with the spark stone and rusting iron in his hands. He felt Mei’s eyes linger on him before she knelt down and watched with strained eyes.
Mazin’s fingers were raw, and the spark stone was little more than a nub, almost crushed between his fingers. The piece of iron was shorter and bent beyond repair. Mei leant back as he blew gently, only for the fire to blaze erratically. He tossed more wood into the flames and turned away when it softened.
“You know, I’ve seen this Tamer strength often now, yet with the mundane I’m still amazed,” Mei smirked, and his cheeks warmed. “Are you always conscious of your strength?”
“I try to be, though I’m not perfect at it.”
“Hmm.” Mei’s eyes were suggestive again.
You want her to be suggestive.
Mazin rushed to produce two torches from the pile of firewood to keep his mind silent.
“What are they for?”
“Torches, so you can bathe with some light.”
“Oh,” Mei turned towards the spring behind her, then fed her unease back towards him.
“I’m not saying you stink, I just thought… maybe you wished to.” Mei’s smirk silenced him.
“If you join me, I will go. Surely the fire will manage on its own.”
“But Mei,”
“If you don’t want to, you can bathe first and I will wait?”
“No, I want to,” Mazin lit both torches as he surged to his feet, then regretted it when Mei laughed. “I mean, I’ll accompany you if you wish it.”
“Mmh.”
They strode together, both with a torch as they approached the warmth from the spring. Faint rumblings beneath the earth reached his soles, strengthening as they climbed the steps towards the steaming water.
Mazin took her torch and planted one on either side of the oval-shaped pool. When he turned, her hair was loose and flowing down her half nude back. He grunted and fixed his gaze on the ground, listening to her clothes drop and the warm water displace as she slipped in.
“I can turn away as well, if you wish?”
“Please.”
“Okay, tell me when you are ready.”
Mazin rushed to throw off his rain-soaked rags and kick off his boots, which held up well, considering. He nearly dived into the water, splashing the warmth onto the stones surrounding it. Before he signalled his readiness, he gazed down at himself in the clear water and saw his nudity clearly.
“Fuck,” he whispered.
“What is it?” She jumped, but still with her back towards him. Mazin ensured he didn’t look at her.
“The water doesn’t… the water is rather clear.”
“That’s good, yes, it’s clean, then?”
“I will see you.”
“I don’t mind,” Mei muttered after a pause. “Do you?”
Mazin shifted into the furthest corner from Mei and hoped her eyes would struggle. His Tamer eyes were not the best judge, but his moving made no difference to him.
What are you doing? She wants you to see her?
“Okay.” Mazin cleared his throat. “I’m ready.”
Mei spun around to face him like a dream. Her raven black hair streamed down from her face like a curtain, revealing the extraordinary brown olive skin on her face. Her lashes stretched as her eyes blinked to gaze upon him, with the greyness sparkling like jewels in the torchlight. The blackened trio of gashes running down the left side of her face became painted artwork.
It’s the steam, it is the steam. Despite his mind doing its best to break the spell she bound him under, his gaze remained glued to her face.
“I think you were wrong. Even with your ruby eye and the torches, I can barely make you out.”
It was her songlike voice that woke him from her spell. She used her hair to cover her breasts, then sank deeper into the water with a sigh.
“Isn’t this peaceful? No outside world, no Bannerless, no guards?”
“It is peaceful,” Mazin muttered.
“Mazin, is it all right if I come closer? I can barely hear you.”
Yes.
“I’ll do my best not to look, though I won’t demand the same of you upon myself.”
Yes!
“You may.”
“Are you sure? I’ve heard more confidence from you before.”
“I’m sure.”
Mazin turned away when she rose. She strode in the hip high water towards him and snorted when she sat down beside him.
“We have been sleeping together Mazin, arm in arm. I thought you were more comfortable with me.”
“I am, but this is… different.”
“Truly, I have felt all of you, even with your layer of clothing.”
“No… Mei I am sorry,”
“Oh, sweet Prince.” Mei’s laughter was a joyous song. “I am not complaining at all. Though I do not mean to force you into feeling comfortable with me.”
“I am, really. It’s just, I’ve never bathed with anyone else in a long time.”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“May I ask why?”
“My brother and I became too old. After that, no one else wished to put up with my eye.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Mazin. It really is an uncommon thing, isn’t it? When that woman asked you to cover it, it bothered me.”
“Other than dark beasts, I have never seen or even read of someone else possessing red eyes.”
“Everyone else can glare at you all they want. It is jealousy, for you are a handsome man.”
Mazin grunted and smiled before dropping his gaze to his restless fingers beneath the water.
“You should know it, and believe it beyond me telling you. For it is the truth.”
“I find… I think you’re beautiful,” Mazin turned towards her. His hand rose towards the sleek black curtain covering the scarred side of her face. Her grey eyes followed it, and he paused, then she nodded, and his wet fingers completed the journey. He shifted her silk and caressed it over her ear while she shut her eyes, biting her trembling lip. “All of you, even what you needlessly hide.”
Her eyes slowly opened, glistening with tears. His hand rested on her neck, with his thumb caressing her throat.
He was sure he didn’t pull her towards him, though she was on him in a flash. In no time, their lips met, and they were warm. She giggled and pulled away when they bumped teeth, which seared his ears. With both hands, Mei kissed him again.
Mazin’s right caressed her neck. His left flicked the rest of her hair back, sliding down her side, enjoying the bulge of her breast. Before enjoying the inward curve on the side of her stomach, widening outwards again onto her hip and bottom. He squeezed the generous filling in his hand and she moaned into his mouth, laughing again when she pulled away.
Mei rose, offering her chest to him while her hand fumbled in the water for his throbbing virility. Mazin buried his face in her breasts, unable to linger on either for too long. When she strangled his phallus, he snatched his hands away from her and crushed two nearby stones underwater to keep himself from finishing.
She stifled her moaning as she slid him inside her, and Mazin feared to grip her, unable to control his hands. It was only when she grabbed his hands that he trusted them. He squeezed her bottom as she leant down to kiss him again, while he bounced her.
Sweet and short. A pleasurable release later, it ended.
Beside the campfire, intertwined beneath their blankets and atop a hard bedroll, Mei ran her fingers along Mazin’s bony chest, humming a melody. Her leg was warm and soft across his pelvis, while she caressed his leg with her other foot. There was no odour on them. His curly hair was less knotted. Her own sleek blackness was in a messy bun. The rain beyond the grove seemed so far away to his ears.
“I enjoyed both times Mazin.” she pecked his cheek. He tensed up, and she pinched him. “Stop that.”
“What?”
“Your misguided shame, you performed more than adequate.”
“Second time, perhaps,” Mazin whispered.
“Stop it!”
“Was it your first time?”
“No.”
Mazin frowned.
“It was mine.”
Mei stilled her humming, then lifted her gaze towards him. Her greys narrowed at him for a moment, before it glittered with starry tears. She crawled up his body and kissed him again.
“What was that for?”
“No other reason than I wanted to.”
Mei’s head rested on his chest now, calm in her heart.
“Who was your first?”
“Mazin, must I really answer that?”
“I’m sorry,” he sighed, but Mei remained serene on his chest. Her breath slowing as sleep took hold.
“I cannot dwell on what was, otherwise I won’t enjoy what is. I wish to sleep and so should you. We have wasted enough time already.”
It was the musical way in which her wisdom came to his ears. It was difficult to disagree with. Though her mention of waste only stirred a dormant worry in him. Where were Kamaria and Galel?
Mazin groaned awake without Mei’s gentle weight upon him. His ruby eye contended with the surprising darkness lingering around. He expected to wake up with morning light, or at least morning gloom, peeking through the gaps between the trees.
A crushing stiffness came over him and he struggled to groan, let alone shift and turn over. There was a faint warmth from where the campfire was, but its light should have been much brighter even if it was the morning.
Grass crunched, and the shifting weight stilled him. Numbness faded from his tongue and drooling lips filled him with panic. Poison leaked out of his limbs, yet he refused to shift. The Bannerless caught up to them, and his mind screamed at him for patience.
Shadowed figures shifted around in his periphery as he lay there, and the longer Mei remained silent, the more he fought to stay still.
His feet tingled, then his toes. When the black draped, dead in the eyes, shadows stood over him, they forced pants onto his nude body before lifting him up and revealing more of them.
Mei lay huddled in a bundle, draped in a cloth gown, eyes shut and untouched. He only looked away once he caught the subtle rise and fall of her chest. Two shadows stood over her, as still as statues, with the glow of their empty eyes betraying their stillness.
He studied the unnaturally low flames of the campfire. As if they buried an army of candles in the soil, emitting their finger sized flickering light amongst the piles of ash and wood. The shadows were silent. He was sure they weren’t even breathing. Only their movement shifting their strange cloth, and their footfalls tickled at his ears.
Their grip on his wrists and ankles was a stranglehold, near Tamer strength. He prepared, however, counting down until his full strength returned. They hadn’t moved since lifting him, still close beside the fire. Faint words floated through the darkness borne from the shadowy figures, and a stink of impatience mingled with it.
Mazin yanked himself free and kicked out from the stony grip around his ankles. They hardly made a sound, turning back to face him when he thumped onto the ground. He snatched the closest log from the campfire and roared when the heat seared into his palms. Yellow, fiery lightning exploding into a flash of splinters and embers when he swung.
The shadow he struck combusted into flames, and the other jumped away while it burned up into a pile of ash. Mazin snatched another burning stick for both hands as the campfire grew. He set the other shadow ablaze and charged for the pair standing over the still unconscious Mei.
“What’s taking so long?”
The unnatural darkness around the camp vanished, revealing the early morning and sunlight beyond the tree line. Mazin set the final two ablaze before spinning around to face the half a dozen Bannerless rushing into the camp.
His hands and fingers were throbbing. An icy chill whistled into the camp, enjoying his exposed torso and bare feet, blowing away the ashes of the lifeless shadows.
Fear exploded from each of them, five Tigers in worn lamellar. With the Bagha carved out of their armour. One pale Jaguar, in better kept plate and chain mail. She paled further into the shade of milk beneath her hood, and he caught her lips trembling.
“What’s happening?” Someone asked.
Mazin snatched up Mei during their distraction. She was worryingly cold to his touch, and her blackened scars pulsed with dark magenta sparks. It coursed through her veins, but he had no time to investigate when the flash of the sun whitened his vision for a moment.
“Hey!”
Another trio of Bannerless to the south drew their steel, but he was sprinting north. More sprouted from shrubbery and smaller groves, but they were too far to make a difference. Mazin kept his eyes north, ignoring the icy burn jolting up his bare feet.
If it wasn’t for the fire of adrenaline burning in him, he would have frozen on the spot. The northern sun was merely an ornament in the pale sky. Soon it all faded, and his chest begged for an end, along with his fading arms and raw feet.
Clouds greyed the pale blue above, and his teeth chattered while his ruby eye panicked for shelter. He slipped and stumbled on the yellow grass, leaving footprints of blood from his ruined soles, before collapsing on his knees before a dead mushroom tree.
“I’m sorry.”
Mazin chanted his apology many times as he placed Mei between the two roots. He carried piles of dried leaves in his arms and sprinkled them around her. Limping around in search of anything worthy for a fire, until he could not stand.
His palms were stiff, and fingers stung with blisters. Mazin cradled himself beside Mei amongst the itchy dry leaves and wrapped himself around her. All while chanting his apologies to her, she remained oblivious to it all, but calm. Mazin rubbed her and himself, apologising while his vision darkened.
Shouts and grunts, whispered threats and drawn steel. Figures hovered over them in the darkness. Mei hardly stirred beyond her calm breath. He begged for her to awaken when the anger battered him. It was the grumbling beasts slowing his panic. Though his waning consciousness refused to shift away from Mei. Still wrapped around her, glued together by their perspiration.
“How can we trust you?”
“I am a Lion much like yourselves!”
Mazin couldn’t keep the words for too long. Now his heart rushed towards panic.
How much time has passed?
He hadn’t the strength to speak, nor move. Yet he felt the strange sensation coursing through her body still.
No more!
“Prince, no!” someone shouted, and a commotion followed.
Mazin shuddered. His vision withered, while the poison seeped into his fingers after their bout of tingling. Disabling numbness shot through his body. Once more, his vision darkened, and he felt weaker than before.
He floated on a cloud, wrapped in fine silks. A gentle drumming of rain, then bright sunlight. Mazin was in and out of consciousness. Sometimes he awoke in the night beside a campfire, other times he woke up to dull light. Time eluded him.
Ever cold whenever he did. Mazin had no control. Mei’s faint voice was a lift. In his dreams or in reality, he didn’t care. Hearing it was enough. Amongst raised voices and threats of arguments, but no steel.
“Princess please, we have,”
“I don’t care. That is your agreement. I will be with him!”
Mei was all he saw. Warmth emanated from her sparkling grey eyes. She appeared gaunt, no. A trick of his fading vision. Her words became incoherent, but her affection blessed his brow before he darkened again.
It was freezing now. Everywhere turned white. His floating litter, which shaded him well before, was damp. Icy water seeped through the silk. Mazin’s teeth chattered while voices simmered closer.
No gloom justified the silent downfall, yet he shivered in his dampness. He found the strength to squirm in his swaddled state, searching for warmth through friction between his flesh and the silk. Instead, a jolt surged up his spine, and he gasped aloud.
“What was that?”
“A welcome, Prince,” someone answered close beside him.
It warmed, despite the pale whiteness falling around. His eye made out the muscular Sinha pulling his wheeled litter. With its scratched fur of unending blackness, blocking his view. Too weak to rise from his back, his neck worked.
“Have we arrived?”
“Almost, the Mahn’Parvat is visible. Though I would not strain yourself to see it yet. Bana’Parvat’s weeping walls still come.” She spoke with the familiarity of someone who knew him, but he didn’t recognise her.
“Where is Mei?”
“Ahead, with her Tigers, worry not. She fights to be at your side, and will be once we are safe behind the walls. Rest.”
A warm breeze added weight to his eyelids. The stranger’s soothing voice brought sleep to him. He fought to glimpse the sparkling jewel ahead as the road curved. Volcanic stone walls towered in the hazy distance, glittering with jewels. It was all he could manage until his eyes refused to open.
Mazin awoke in a cloud that would not let him rise from its feathered embrace. His head was mush and limbs drained. He was skin on bones, gaunt and hollow, sinking into his own body. A brightness returned; one he hadn’t enjoyed for an eternity. Both of his eyes blinked at the dark canopy above him. The wine-red velvet was pristine and smelled of fruit.
There was another around. He smelled their sharp perfume from beyond the doors. It was warm and brightly lit within, but it wasn’t the hanging lamps flickering within pale glass. A low thrumming flowed ceaselessly within the walls, pulsing with heat through the volcanic rock.
Mazin grunted as he tried to shift, and the doors opened to allow a woman in sheer black silks.
“Prince, you’re awake.”
She favoured black ink on her face, her lips, and around her eyes. Her bulbous nose stood out on her petite and sharp face, with a subtle broken ridge before the bridge.
“Who are you?” He recognised her voice, but not her face.
“I am called Nu, Prince. May I approach?”
He grunted, and she smiled before bowing, closing the doors behind her. Her short black dreads glistened with oil, decorated with black opals streaked with rainbow-coloured veins.
“How are you feeling?”
“How did you fix my eye?”
“Ah,” she smiled, never losing her gentle voice. Nu smelled of sweet ash and perfumed apples, her sandy ochre skin glistened with dark glitter. She sat beside his bed on a cushioned stool. “Later, there is an issue we should discuss first.”
“Where am I? Where is Mei?”
“In the Dead Palace, within Bana’Parvat, and the… Mei is why I am here.”
Mazin fuelled his rise with anger, but was immediately light headed afterwards.
“Where?”
“She is fine and safe, but with her Tigers. May I have your hand, Prince?” She slipped off her silk gloves to reveal bony, long fingers with black painted nails. “I must search for any remaining corruption. When you took on Mei’s poison, I searched every dark corner, so to speak, of your body, and it was laborious. Any shred that remains will hinder you.”
“What’s happened? Is she your prisoner?” Mazin asked, then offered his hand. He frowned at the flicker of a word on her brow when she caressed him, ‘Knowledge’ in script and blacker than ink. It lingered on her head, fainter than it appeared, while a pulse tingled throughout his body.
“Masters Kamaria and Galel caused quite a fuss when we found you, especially amongst the Tigers who came with me. Mei is with them and protected, but believe me when I say she fought to be with you. We agreed it would be safe for now, that both of you stay parted until you bond.”
“Safe.” Mazin shivered when another pulse surprised him. “What harm?”
“Please Prince, there is no harm, only complications. When I return with your food, we can discuss everything.” It renewed Mazin, though confusion wracked him.
“You must recover your strength and bond. Time is against us. Before anything else you must bond,” Nu rose from her stool and placed it back. She hesitated for a moment. “I will see if I can steal Mei for a moment afterwards.”
Nu bowed before departing, and Mazin’s mind refused to understand anything. One moment at the brink of death. Another in a luxurious cell. His body didn’t care. He slid back into comfort, letting sleep take him again.